Think on your feet

You are more likely to survive an encounter with a violent criminal, not by mindless Hollywood-style heroics, but by taking simple avoidance action. So advised US security expert, J Kelly McCann, when he addressed a Personal Security Awareness Seminar hosted by AmCham last week at the Hilton Trinidad. Unapologetically using graphic street language, McCann drove home the harsh realities of modern violent crime. McCann is a former US Marine major, security/military consultant to CNN, and senior vice president of Kroll’s Protective Security and Training Group (USA). He trained US special forces seeking Osama bin laden in Afghanistan last October, according to the CNN website. Despite his own colourful past as a special operations officer in anti- terrorism, he advised participants on a lower-profile approach to surviving violent confrontations. Saying television shows did not show the hard reality of violence, he warned:

“Get stabbed in the stomach with a screwdriver and you’ll have a colostomy the rest of your life. Get knocked down and hit your head on the curb and you could become a quadriplegic”. Saying he was trying to reduce participants’ chances of getting attacked, he explained: “The criminal is a predator. You will be attacked when conditions are least favourable to you and most favourable to the attacker. Criminals are not stupid, although they do seek the path of least resistance. “A bad person doesn’t care if you get hurt or he gets hurt. He’s got nothing to lose. Most people aren’t capable of (mentally) dealing with violent crime. Don’t try to out-think the criminals — they go to a ‘school of criminology’.” People’s best chance to survive violent crime, he said, was to try to anticipate it thereby being aware and alert, and so avoid it. He advised that if approached by someone acting suspiciously, don’t wait until you see his weapon. “Beep your horn. Take a left, take a right. Make your determination and act early...If the criminal gets in your face before it comes to the weapon, just bolt!”. He noted that many people, if awakened at night by an intruder in their home, denied to themselves what was actually happening to them. This freezing-up had even happened to highly-trained soldiers of the British SAS when attacked by an IRA mob who eventually killed them with their own pistol, he added. “When you are under crushing fear you are significantly dysfunctional,” he explained.

Personally he did not recommend participants to buy a gun, saying it required your mental commitment to actually shoot another person, which many people would find hard to do, and it was a huge liability that one’s children would play with it. He instead advocated the use of guard dogs to deter criminals. Pepper-gas also found favour with McCann; he lamented that it was illegal in Trinidad and Tobago. To not to be targetted by criminals when traveling through airports, McCann advised participants to keep a low profile, especially not to display their personal information on baggage labels. He explained: “Criminals are master observers. They know people.” He also gave detailed advice on how to select a hotel room where one felt safe, giving insight into the scams that criminals tried on hotel guests. Look for a vertical crack down the outside of a door frame, he said, warning that was proof the door had once been kicked in by assailants and could be so assaulted again. To secure one’s home, McCann thought door-chains to be ineffective, instead preferring good-quality locks, convex mirrors, CCTV, motion censors, and Mylar sheeting over sliding glass doors.

To cut your chances of being trailed by criminals, he advised that one should vary one’s daily schedule, changing the times one left home for work and the route taken. For women being attacked by a robber/potential rapist, he advised them that if it was too late to prempt the robbery by taking off, they should initially comply and hand over their handbag. But they should not merely hand it over and allow for a pregnant pause, but should then add some uncertainty to the attacker, say by running off. He warned women who gave up their valuables against going along with an assailant, who might tell them to go with them down into an alley. He said: “Historically with women you don’t want to go to a second attack-site. The odds are overwhelming that you will be killed or raped.” Women should instead try running away even if the assailant had a gun, he said, saying that with some distance she had a good chance of avoiding being shot. Criminals did not attack at random, he said, but chose their victims based on personality traits and on circumstances. Saying that criminals were “in tune with people” and that like a lion on the savannah they attacked the weakest prey, McCann disclosed that a psychological survey of criminals discovered that they perceived as vulnerable, persons with unusual foot strides. Further, he said, the criminal would attack in circumstances where the victim possessed value, was accessible, and wouldn’t offer resistance, and where the attacker could make his escape. To anticipate a criminal assault, McCann advised: “Be alert for things that make you say, ‘That’s strange’.”